Phone hacking: four Sun journalists arrested

Four senior journalists from the Sun newspaper have been arrested on suspicion
of making illegal payments to police officers.

(L-R) Fergus Shanahan, Chris Pharo, Graham Dudman and Mike Sullivan

By David Barrett, Robert Mendick and Patrick Sawer

1:42PM GMT 28 Jan 2012

The men, believed to include current and former executives, were detained after information was handed to the Metropolitan Police by News Corporation, the tabloid’s parent company.

The arrested journalists are believed to be Fergus Shanahan, 57, who was Rebekah Brooks’s deputy during her editorship of the Sun from 2003 to 2009, who now works as a comment writer; Chris Pharo, 42, the current head of news; Graham Dudman, 49, a former managing editor, who now works in a training role for News International; and Mike Sullivan, 48, the paper’s long-serving crime editor.

Police from the Met’s Operation Elveden, set up to investigate illegal payments to officers, were searching the Sun newsroom for evidence after the early morning arrests.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation set up its Management and Standards Committee (MSC) last July to oversee the company’s response to the police investigation into phone hacking and illegal payments.

A company spokesman said: “News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated.

“It commissioned the MSC to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively co-operate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles.

“As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the MSC provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to today’s arrests.

“No comment can be made on the nature of that information to avoid prejudicing the investigation and the rights of individuals.”

The spokesman said the MSC gave police “every assistance” during searches of News International premises, and offered legal representation to employees who had been arrested.

The News of the World, the Sun’s sister title, was shut down last year after it was implicated in the phone-hacking scandal.

The arrest of three of the journalists took place at their homes in Essex and London between 6am and 8am today.

Police are understood to have mistakenly visited Mr Pharo’s former marital home, before managing to contact him by telephone. The 42-year-old journalist later attended voluntarily at a police station, where he was arrested.

All four journalists were arrested on suspicion of corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906; aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both those offences.

They are currently being questioned at police stations in London and Essex.

A 29-year-old police officer from the Met’s Territorial Policing command was also arrested at the central London police station where he worked, on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy.